As tradition would have it, Kelly Slater waited until the final two minutes of his heat to knock off the competition and win a record 11th world surfing crown in San Francisco Wednesday.
The 39-year-old American had trailed Australia's Daniel Ross for 25 minutes of their third-round heat at the RipCurl Pro at Ocean Beach.
Then Slater took a conventional right-hand wave and carved five turns out of it, ending up almost on the beach.
He needed a ride of 6.88 points out of 10 to leapfrog Ross and the judges awarded him a 7.6.
Ross tried one last wave -- a left-hand barrel -- but it closed out on him and he was lost in the whitewater as thousands of spectators on the beach erupted in cheers.
A large American flag was fluttering in the afternoon California sunshine as people held up "Kelly" banners and the crowd started chanting his name.
Slater only had to reach the fourth round as he had enough points accumulated from his three wins out of nine events on the ASP 2011 tour to date to stay clear of Australian surfer Owen Wright, ranked No. 2 in the world.
His win not only re-wrote the record books, but it was also tinged with sadness and irony as it came on the one-year anniversary of the death of Slater's fierce rival and good friend, Andy Irons.
The 32-year-old was found dead in a Texas hotel room on November 2 last year from a mixture of drugs he was taking for illness and sleep deprivation.
"It's sort of weird. I was thinking about a lot of things coming together," Slater said.
"It obviously makes it a lot more special for me. It's a way to celebrate and remind us of him. He's been on our minds ... I wrote a story for him this morning of some of my memories of Andy. I could probably write a book."
Slater said he did not know how to rate his 11th crown.
"I don't know. It hasn't really sunk in. I've been pretty stressed, actually. I'm glad it's over," he said.
"There's a personal satisfaction but I don't know what it means as far as my whole life."
